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Lab number
TO-362
Material dated
bison bone collagen; collagène osseux de bison
Taxa dated
Bison sp. (id. by D. Meyer)
Locality
about half-way between the towns of Ponteix and Aneroid, Notukeu Creek, Wood River drainage, Saskatchewan
Map sheet
72 G/11
Submitter
D. Meyer
Date submitted
July 11, 0096
Normalized Age
3100 ± 80
Significance
Palaeoindian, Cody, anomalous, young; Paléoindien, anormal, jeune
Context
cultural layer
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Bison sp
Comments
DkNu-3, Niska: Many Cody complex artifacts have been found on the surface, but only two point stem fragments were found in situ. One of them occurred in unit 132S/293E adjacent to radiocarbon sample S-2235 from unit 132S/292E in the eastern excavation block. Meyer (1985: 28) believes that S-2235 is too recent, possibly due to contamination by recent rootlets; the paleosol was near the surface where a grain crop had been grown in the previous year. The other point stem fragment occurred in the western block in unit 142S/280E, diagonally adjacent to S-2353 from unit 141S/279E. S-2453 consisted of 215 g of bone fragments from the western block that apparently contained very little collagen, resulting in a large standard deviation (Meyer 1986: 172). Meyer collected more samples from Niska in 1986, and four were submitted for dating (D. Meyer, p.c. 1989). The large standard deviation on S-2510 (+/- 650) is a result of having used a small counter that had been out of service for several weeks and lacked adequate background statistics (J. Wittenberg, pers. comm. to D. Meyer). Of three AMS dates from the Isotrace laboratory, the youngest (TO-362) cannot be considered to date the Cody complex, and the oldest (TO-956) appears to date an earlier Paleoindian hearth about 45 m south of the main site concentration (Meyer and Liboiron 1990). Between these is a date (TO-934) that overlaps the range of S-2235, the latter already mentioned as probably too recent. Several factors may have contributed to these disparate results. The Niska site may never have been deeply buried, and the bones used for dating may have been subjected to a variety of diagenetic processes in the active layer of the soil. For example, plant rootlets and fungi may have launched repeated or prolonged attack, and bones from such burial environments can be unusually difficult to rid of contaminants. The site has been severely deflated by wind erosion, and the paleosol associated with the occupation debris may be host to a lag deposit that incorporated younger materials during previous deflation episodes. David Meyer (p.c. 1990) has given careful thought to the latter possibility, and he notes that there are no apparent differences in the state of preservation of the bone samples submitted for dating. Judging from other sites, the best estimate of age for the Cody complex occupation at Niska is given by S-2510 (8475 +/- 650 BP).

References